It’s now Day Two of Early Access for SWTOR, giving the players who pre-ordered a copy of the game an early look at the world of The Old Republic as an MMO. I placed my pre-order the first day it was available, and though I cancelled that order after my beta experience, I still have access to the game (note: always pre-order early – you can always cancel it).

So far my impressions remain essentially what they were with the beta. It seems to me that the game was designed as a single-player experience, surrounded by the conventions of modern MMOs. The best thing about the game remains the IP on which it was based, but I was never one to find a world overrun by Jedi and Sith all that exciting. I prefer my lightsabers few and far between, not one-in-each-hand.

That’s not to say there aren’t good things. I think the Crew Skills system is pretty cool – a little bland at my level but I’m willing to bet it will improve as I level up.

There are a lot of people who love the game, and I’m sure some of you are among that group. What are your experiences so far? Are you playing with a group of friends or just running solo? What’s your favorite part of the game to this point?

I’m starting a new column to talk a little bit about the next great MMO. When I’m playing WoW regularly, I can’t help but think about what’s coming next in the MMO world. It’s a conversation I have often with my gaming friends, and I’ve talked with them about starting this column for a long time.

There are a lot of games in development that might finally try to be something other than a WoW-clone. Most every major MMO I’ve seen since WoW has failed because it tried to emulate the industry’s gorilla. The latest batch looks like it will break that mold, which can only mean good things for us players. If you’ve seen any of the Guild Wars 2 development videos, you know developers are at least thinking about ways to re-imagine virtual worlds that characteristically function and persist without interaction from the player (If you head back to the Alliance starting area, you’ll still find Hogger milling about, despite the millions of times he’s been killed and, if you kill him, he’ll keep coming back).

I woke up the day after Christmas to find the latest installment in BioWare’s teaser series for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. It included a look at another class, the Trooper, but more interesting (to me, anyway) was the section on Crew Skills. Crew Skills give you access to the profession system in SWTOR without requiring you to spend time building those things up. Some of you probably read that last sentence and cringed. Part of what makes the world engaging is that you spend time doing things and then see the fruits of your efforts. I agree with that to a degree, and I’ll probably do a bit of the profession work myself if/when (more likely when) I play SWTOR, at least for my first character. Past that point, though, professions can be a bit of a chore. It’s annoying to fly around for an hour or two just to farm up some ore. Automating that process means I’ll be able to see the benefits of my professions more quickly, and I get to keep doing the stuff I love while I play. I’m going to spare you my own description of the Crew Skills at work and trust that you’ll just watch the video.

I love the concept, and it’s nice that BioWare has finally given us something other than lightsabers and wristrockets to get excited about in SWTOR. The next great MMO isn’t going to have shinier purples, it’s going to have a more streamlined player experience, aimed at keeping your character solvent even if you can only play a couple hours a week.

The big news from EA’s earnings call yesterday was definitely that the company expected to make millions less this year than it originally though. CEO John Riccitello is already looking forward to 2011, though, when he says the company will release a “major MMO.”

From what we know, that probably means Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware. That would be about as major as you can get. It’s definitely at the top of my MMO wish list. There are other options, though. He could be talking about Need for Speed: World Online, which I really hope isn’t the case. There’s also the very slim chance that EA has a hush-hush project in the works, but I doubt that’s going to happen either.

Instead, I think it’s safe to start dreaming up bounty hunter names.